"Hot Chocolate" vs "Hot Cocoa"
Americans have come to use the terms "hot chocolate" and "hot cocoa" interchangeably, obscuring the considerable difference between the two. "Hot cocoa" is made from powder made by extracting most of the rich cocoa butter from the ground cacao beans. "Hot chocolate," on the other hand, is made directly from
bar chocolate, which already contains cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter. Thus the major difference between the two is the cocoa butter, which makes hot cocoa significantly lower in fat than hot chocolate, while still preserving all the intrinsic health-giving properties of chocolate.